The Contenders: Mirinda Carfrae Wants Another Championship

The 2010 IRONMAN World Champion has never finished off the podium here in Kona.

by Kevin Mackinnon

As she ran up behind Leanda Cave during the marathon during last year’s race, triathlon fans around the world were making the call: Mirinda Carfrae is going to win her second world championship.

The now-32-year-old Australian shattered the Kona marathon course record in 2011 (a mind-boggling 2:52:09, which is a little over 6:30/mile, which is … well, picture running at a really fast pace around your local track, then doing it another 103 times without stopping), and has made a career out of running down her competition at events around the world. Running along the Queen K highway, just before the turn into the infamous Energy Lab, Carfrae looked as though she was ready to make the pass and continue up the road to catch then race-leader Caroline Steffen. The race was in the bag.

Except it wasn’t. For the first time in her Kona career, Carfrae bonked. She’d lost a valuable water bottle filled with a high-caloric drink at the start of the bike and hadn't adequately replaced the calories. That left her both energy-depleted and dehydrated starting the run. Carfrae didn’t end up getting past Cave, who would become the champion, and struggled to the finish line, where she learned she’d lost 10 lbs.

When you’re a 5’3" dynamo, that’s eight or nine percent of your body weight. Enough to stop most in their tracks and send them off the course in a stretcher, but only enough to slow Carfrae down enough to relegate her to her lowest finish in four attempts: third. She now looks at the experience as a confidence booster.

"Having that happen to me, and to still be able to hold it together for a 3:05 marathon, in what were basically the worst conditions for me, is confidence building," she says.

She’ll need that confidence. This year Carfrae arrives on the Big Island with far fewer wins than we’re used to seeing on her resume. The lighter race schedule is not by choice: an early season crash was one of many complications she experienced during the first half of the year.

Then, in June, Carfrae decided it was time to start working with her former coach, Siri Lindley, again. A runner-up finish in Racine was followed by a run-to-the-front win in Muskoka just over a month ago.

Like so many great champions before her, while Carfrae is quick to acknowledge how much she would love another win here in Kona, what really drives her is a better performance.

"I still think I can go faster," she says. "I still think I can improve as an athlete. My best performances are yet to come on this island."

Carfrae is also fully aware that as prepared as she might be for Saturday’s race, her competition is equally as ready.

"I’ve had a great track record here, but you can’t go into this race without a lot of respect for the course and your competitors," she says. "Any athlete who comes in and just thinks that they are going to win is going to be rudely shocked on race day. You have to have confidence that you have the ability to win, but you need to be ready for a big fight."

Once Saturday’s race is over, Carfrae and her fiancé, American Tim O’Donnell, will be able to get back to planning their December wedding.

"The wedding has been a little bit of a distraction," she says, "but I just keep pinching myself … I’m in the best shape of my life and get to race this race on the weekend. Then, in December, I’m getting married to my best friend."